New PS5 controller costs almost $500

Razer, who is known for its controllers and PC accessories, has announced a new controller for the PS5 that will cost Australians $475.

The Wolverinre V2 Pro joins a long list of new Razer products for games. Picture: Razer

The Razer Wolverine V2 Pro is a high-end controller made primarily for esports players on PlayStation 5. According to its store page, it sports mechanical buttons, offset analogue sticks, and programmable buttons on the back, as well as wireless connectivity. A previous version of the controller for Xbox, the Wolverine V2 Chroma, carries much of the same features, but can only be connected via a cable.

The new PS5 controller, which is officially licensed and listed as compatible with Windows 10 in addition to the PS5, is however missing a few major features that gamers have come to love about Sony’s own DualSense controller. Firstly, it’s missing the DualSense’s haptic vibration, which works similarly to Nintendo’s Switch controllers and allows developers finer control over the vibration of the controller.

While third-party peripherals are often thought of as cheap alternatives, Razer products tend to be a little higher priced. Picture: Razer

It also lacks adaptive triggers, which are special triggers on the DualSense that are harder to press in context-sensitive situations, allowing for a more immersive experience. This can be used, for example, to simulate a gun jamming in a first person shooter, which indicates to the player that they need to manually reload.

To top it off, the Wolverine V2 Pro lacks a speaker, meaning games that use that feature will instead have to play the audio that would normally play through the controller will instead be played alongside the rest of the game’s audio.

With the Wolverine V2 Pro retailing at $475.95 in Australia, it will cost over $100 more than Sony’s own enhanced DualSense Edge. That controller offers much of the same features and the option to change out analogue sticks should they get damaged, along with all the features missing from the Wolverine V2 Pro.

PlayStation 5 owners aren’t strangers to high prices, though; earlier this year, PS5s got more expensive, after Sony raised the price of both PS5 models by $50 in most of the world. The company also recently announced the price of the PSVR2, a new PlayStation VR headset that costs more than the PS5 itself, at $879.95.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.